Pouvons-nous insérer QUATRE ensembles d'outils dans une boîte à outils Bosch L-BOXX ?

When you’ve accumulated one Bosch tool box too many! But who wants to carry around 3 toolboxes and a bit set when you can fit it all in one? Or can you? What we’re working with is a pretty typical accumulation of tool kits. We’ve got a Bosch Professional hand tool set, another little Bosch set that we’ve picked up and finally the Bosch GSR combi drill with detachable heads. The problem with those is that they all come in their own little plastic toolbox with their own individual plastic trays or Bosch L-Boxx inserts. Typically, no one would want to take all these kits around with them when a single box would be easier. So we could just throw everything into one bigger box, that might work. But instead, we’re going to condense all of these three tool kits down into one in a super organised way.

What’s in the box?

The inserts that these boxes have come with are all different and less than ideal. In fairness to Bosch, these are usually just produced for the purpose of transportation so aren’t really built to last longer. So there’s a kind of canvass feel tray in one. A Styrofoam insert which is about 60mm deep and taking up a lot of space in another. Also quite a tough plastic tray and also a really cheap thin blow moulded tray. But these have all either taken up too much space, been too spaced out, aren’t tough or long lasting enough to want to keep in your Bosch tool box. So the aim here is to replace all of these plastic and Styrofoam inserts with our ready-made Bosch L-Boxx inserts.

Our Bosch L-Boxx inserts:

These are available on our website for just £24.99 and come in twin packs in either 30mm or 50mm depth. They also come in a choice of 7 colours. We have opted for our new Teal which compliments the brand really nicely. But equally the red would have looked really nice and impactful too. And of course you can use them either way round, so having the colour on top on in the base if you prefer.

We’re also going to be using one of our cutting kits. These are £20.00 but when bought with any of our foam they come down to £10.00. Very importantly these include cut proof gloves along with scalpel blades glue and some stickers. So for £34.99 with free next day UK delivery you can have absolutely everything you need to cut yourself some Shadow Foam inserts. A small investment for something that will last you for years, help you work more efficiently, and protect and organise your kit which undoubtedly cost an awful lot more than that.

What’s the plan for this Bosch tool box and tools?

Once we’ve combined all these kits into one and got them super organised, we are going to give this tool kit away to a lucky winner. But if you don’t win or just want to organise your own tools, we’re going to show you how it’s done.

So the first box we will be discarding possibly for future or other use is from Costco. We found it has a few items in it that the professional set doesn’t. For example, the claw hammer, three meter tape, five meter tape and bull nose pliers. The other kit is the Bosch Professional GSR system. This is a drill body with a detachable head. Then there are three heads that go with this this which just push on and twist to lock in place. First is combi jaw head and there’s also an impactor head and an angle drill head.

The tools overall have got a really nice feel to them, If you want a full review on those you can find that in a bit more detail on our review post.

Planning the layout.

But, before we start cutting anything we need to figure out the layout. As we are creating two layers. we need to do this for both before we start. For us, in the top, we wanted to put the drill, the charger and the accessories. Ideally we would also like often used items like the knife and tape measures too. So first we start with the base layer into which we are going to try and get all the hand-tools. We know we can definitely improve against this spaced out layout that Bosch have done . We’ve decided to go for a 50mm Bosch L-Boxx foam inlay for each layer in this box.

When planning your own layered lay-out, on top you want items that you want to lay your hands on quickly. So ideally you don’t want to be lifting a layer out to just grab your tape measure. It’s worth thinking about what items you yourself are more likely to use often and try and get them to fit in the top layers.

Take your time with this planning stage, it’s really important. It will take a bit of what we call jiggery pokery to get to the point where you’re happy. Think about things like tweaking the angles just playing around with the layout. Also think space. Pinching as much usable space as you can will make your Bosch tool box as full and efficient as possible. Though, it might be that if you have room you leave a little space to add additional items in at a later date. We thought it may be nice to add a utility key to the set which we don’t yet have. So after some careful planning we know we can afford to leave a little space for future additions. Once you’re happy with your layout… take a photo! This will be a really useful reference as you’re working through.

Where to start?

Before we start cutting our Bosch L-Boxx inserts, make sure you’re wearing anti-cut gloves to keep you safe while handling sharp blades. We are always being asked “where do you start?” The short answer is anywhere you like. We sometimes start with a big item or where there’s something that’s tucking nicely into a corner. Then just then go from there. For this set, we have a set of hex keys going into the corner. So we will line that up neatly with the corner and start there.

Time to start cutting.

When you start cutting, just lightly cut around the item. You want to put a little bit of pressure on the item so it doesn’t move. Then you want to just lightly cut around the item. The reason why we use scalpel blades and scalpel handles is because they are so thin so you can get the blade right next to the tool. This will give you a really accurate, neat cut. If you use a craft knife or similar, the actual body of the knife is sometimes up to 20mm wide. In those cases the blade itself is then in the centre of that. So what you’re left with is a 10mm offset which really affects your results. You can of course still use a craft knife but to overcome this offset you need to draw around the item with a pen first.

Many of our customers like to do that anyway, so it is an option. Maybe do it with a fine silver marker or something so you can see it. But we recommend that you use the scalpel to trace cut round the item instead so then you don’t end up with any marks or any staining on the item or the foam. And as you’ll see watching any of our cutting videos, you can also get a really nice tight profile.

When cutting, make sure as you go along, that you’re keeping the scalpel at 90 degrees to the foam. This is to ensure you don’t cut down on an angle, you should be cutting straight down. Once you’ve cut all the way around, remove the item. Then, go back around your original trace cut, taking it down to the depth you want. If like us you are doing a base layer, you will probably want all the tools sat deep into the foam so that the top of them is all flush. That gives us a nice flay surface for the top later to sit on top of. So for this we want all of the foot of the tools recessed down into it and to do that we want to make sure that we’re cutting down deep enough.

Peeling the foam on your Bosch L-Boxx inserts

Once your cutting is done it pays to take the gloves off so you can do the peeling. You need to push your fingers down one end or the other to start with. Then just force the foam up towards you, peeling it away as you go. Initially we have just taken out about 10mm of foam, so then we go back and take out another 10mm layer and so on until we reach the depth we want.

Always to a test fit to see if the item is sitting correctly in the recess. You might find that in certain areas due to the shape of the tool some parts need just a little extra cutting in in places. Also if you find an area where it isn’t peeling, just go back and do a couple more cuts before you peel again. This is important, otherwise you can risk tearing it which results in a rough finish.

Finishing details

When all your tools are cut in and you’re happy with the test fits, you might want to consider adding finger pulls. These are just a method to make the tools easier to get in and out. There are a couple of different techniques that we use when we’re doing finger pulls. One is using a straight edge like a ruler or something and we can cut a line straight across the row of tools which will look really neat. The other which you might have seen on some of our other projects is rounded. For example we could use a semi-circle shape on either side of the tool for grip.

When we completed our bottom layer with the hand tools, we fitted that into the L-Boxx, pushing it in all the way around to ensure a nice snug fit, then moved on to the top layer, essentially repeating the same processes for that. Important considerations for this layer given that it’s a power tool is that we want all the accessories that go with it in there too. That includes the battery charger which we were able to put in with the cable concealed beneath it. We’ve also got the bit set which was an addition to the original tool sets which we’ve condensed down to fit in here as we thought it would compliment the set nicely.

Ooops! Overcoming issues…!

As with the base layer, once it’s complete you also need to fit the top layer in. These test fits are so important to make sure it all fits and closes. For us that posed a problem! There was a small area of the kit touching a tool which meant it wouldn’t close! These things can happen but there is always usually some sort of work-around. We needed to lose around 10mm in that area to make it shut. We did that by shaving off some of the interior ridges on the case. This was really simple and didn’t take away any rigidity from the integrity of the case so it was fine. It did look a bit rough at first, but a bit of spray paint in a matching colour tidied that up nicely.

The finished Bosch tool box

We’ve condensed a lot of stuff into this kit, three boxes into one L-Boxx. We hope you agree that what we’ve ended up with is a really efficient, smart looking tool kit. We’re covering a lot of bases with this, and now it’s all really compact and organised thanks to our Bosch L-Boxx inserts, and the lid closes now too! So if you want to get your Bosch tool box sorted, hopefully this gives you all the inspiration you need!